


Duty of the Eldest

by ani_bester



Category: Batfamily - Fandom, DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Crossover, Other, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-08
Updated: 2011-08-08
Packaged: 2017-10-22 09:34:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/236628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ani_bester/pseuds/ani_bester
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In order to protect Tim and Damian, it falls on Jason to do something he's threatened to do a few times, but it turns out never really wanted to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duty of the Eldest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [modestroad](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=modestroad).



> A DCU/28 Days Later Crossover  
> Much thanks to kirax2 for her generous donation of time check for typos and such.

The sound of Tim's muffled whimpers froze time and became the only thing Jason could focus on.

Tim was crying.

"Tim- Timmy-" Jason heard the crying stop, replaced by a hateful glare burning into his back.

"You're relishing the moment," Tim hissed. "You get to shoot him. You've always wanted to, and now you've got a god damn airtight excuse."

The feel of the gun in his hand worked its way back into Jason's focus. He looked past the barrel to see Dick laying sprawled on the ground maybe 10 feet away. Five of Tim's tranquilizer darts were embedded in his chest.

"They're just sick," Tim had reasoned when he'd picked out his weapon. Jason had argued, but Dick pointed out that unconscious worked as well as dead when you could run. But when you couldn't run, when one of your brothers broke his foot -

Jason took one step closer to Dick, as though another inspection would change the truth of what had happened. Dick's upper arm still oozed blood from where teeth had torn into flesh. The skin around his fingers was still shredded pulp from his crazed effort to rip the boards off the wall. His mouth was still smeared with -

"Fuck," Jason snarled. He ached to smash something, anything. Instead, he closed his eyes and tried to block out the feel of Tim's accusing glare.

Breathing hard, he looked at Dick again.

"This is your fault!" he snarled. "We could have gone one more night without food, you fucking idiot. You didn't have to-."

"We could tie him up. Drag him with us." The sound of Tim's voice, like a pleading child, was worse than his crying.

Jason's resolve flickered, but then his gaze fell on the savaged barrier to their safe spot.

"Tim-"

"We could. Until there's a cure."

Jason didn't answer. He was too busy fighting to re-find his resolve. Too busy justifying. Dick had sworn to protect his younger brothers; Jason was just helping him keep his promise . . .

"Look away, Tim," Jason whispered, tightening his grip on his gun.

"Fuck you." Tim's words were garbled, distorted by his straining throat.

Jason held the gun up. His hand shook too badly for a clean shoot. He brought his other hand up to steady his gun hand.

"Dick-" he began, lowering the gun, but then stopped. What was there to say?

He began to raise it again, but as he did Dick's eyes snapped open. With an inhuman snarl, Dick launched himself at Jason.

 _"Cover your face!"_

Jason reacted before he had even finished his surprised gasp. His jacket flew in front of his eyes, mouth, and nose just as two shotgun blasts rang out. He heard the blood splatter against the black leather, followed by the familiar thud of a body hitting the ground.

Lowering the jacket that now dripped with Dick's blood, Jason looked up to see Damian, a gun half his size in his hands. There was no emotion at all on the 10 year old's face.

Damian went to Dick's body, nudged it once with the barrel of the shotgun. When there was no movement, he bent down and and pulled out an orange bottle from Dick's coat pocket.

"Pain medication," he said, tossing it to Tim.

Jason staggered to Damian and began to check his youngest brother for blood that was not his own. Dick insisted on doing it every time they'd gotten through an attack.

However, Damian scooted away and snorted back at Jason. "Idiot, I'm not the one covered in blood."

"Oh," Jason muttered. "Right."

"The infected are swarming toward this area. Dick thought we'd better leave in the morning." Damian said.

"I think we'd better leave now," Tim whispered.

Jason nodded, watching Tim pop the pills out of the corner of his eye.

"You good?" Jason asked.

"No," Tim whispered. "But I can walk."

Damian made a tsking noise, but held a hand out to help Tim get up. "I brought some ramen back, and oranges," he muttered, as he helped Tim begin to walk toward the pre-determined safest exist.

Jason hesitated a moment, his gaze moving back down to Dick. He made himself look away from the gaping hole in Dick's chest. Dick had fallen on his back, and his empty eyes looked up at Jason. In death, he looked like himself again.

Jason slipped out of his coat -it was a biohazard now anyway- and laid it over Dick's face.

"I'll keep them safe," he whispered. "No matter what I have to do."


End file.
